This clip from Jill Bolte Taylor has had many hits from TED and deservedly so. She is a neuro-scientist with an interest in mental health; specifically mental illness. Her brother had schizophrenia. She experienced a stroke and discusses it in this lecture. The talk is quite illuminating as she explores the classic distinction between the left and right hemisphere and the functions of each.
My graduate work in theology and mental health focussed in one of the chapters specifically on the "mystical mind". Much of what she is discussing is an emerging area of research in both neuropscychiatry and theology. Specific and classical forms of meditation in the Christian tradition have been able to access and heighten each area to produce differing states of consciousness and descriptions of the divine in the world. Right brained emphasis, known classically as apophatic mysticism, and exemplified in mystics such as Meister Eckhart create quiescent states of consciousness. Left brained emphasis, known classically as kataphatic mysticism, and exemplified in mystics such as Ignatious of Loyola produce active states of consciousness.
Further each personality type benefits from specific methods. More introverted people may benefit from Ignatian styled meditation while more active, gut centered people might benefit from Eckhartian sytled meditation.
Meister Eckhart, in the medieval period, ran afould of Church authorities due to his identification of the "ground" of consciousness being identical with the "ground" of God. And this was at least 800 years before advances in brain neurology that is scientifically validating his intuitions and supporting his theological development.
My graduate work in theology and mental health focussed in one of the chapters specifically on the "mystical mind". Much of what she is discussing is an emerging area of research in both neuropscychiatry and theology. Specific and classical forms of meditation in the Christian tradition have been able to access and heighten each area to produce differing states of consciousness and descriptions of the divine in the world. Right brained emphasis, known classically as apophatic mysticism, and exemplified in mystics such as Meister Eckhart create quiescent states of consciousness. Left brained emphasis, known classically as kataphatic mysticism, and exemplified in mystics such as Ignatious of Loyola produce active states of consciousness.
Further each personality type benefits from specific methods. More introverted people may benefit from Ignatian styled meditation while more active, gut centered people might benefit from Eckhartian sytled meditation.
Meister Eckhart, in the medieval period, ran afould of Church authorities due to his identification of the "ground" of consciousness being identical with the "ground" of God. And this was at least 800 years before advances in brain neurology that is scientifically validating his intuitions and supporting his theological development.
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